Watered Garden

The homo purge was absolute BS! It involved "genuine spiritual suspicion" whatever the heck that is. I think one woman in WA was declared to be a lesbian because she drove a pickup truck! There was nothing fair about it. The double standard? Whether or not you were declared to be one or not depended largely on who you had irritated lately. Or whether the quota of M&A'd people had been met by the miniMOG of your area or not. I didn't personally know anyone who got caught in the net of the deceived over this issue, but I'm sure a lot of hearts were trampled into the dust. WG

We were in FWC 20 for 3 months. My son described it to me much later, "It's like they (staff, elder WC, leadership) were the Nazi's and we were the Jews. Touch a wall, you get a beating. Talk out of turn, somebody hits you with a spoon." I wish I had a wooden spoon to insert retrograde into every one of those jerks who hit my son. WG

The sad thing is, this woman was a 6th WC grad, and was generally thought of as the living epitomization of Proverbs 31:10-31. She indicated to me once that she thought so, too. With an example like this, how could anyone like me, an ordinary peon with a checkered past, aspire to being the woman God wants her to be? She was very rigid and demanding, even with her own children, and despised my own son with a passion, criticizing him at every turn, forbidding her children to be anywhere near him. Her own kids were turning out like her, and even in my own home reproved me for not folding my bath towels in the proper manner, or putting a fitted sheet on the bed with the corners pulled down in the wrong order. Amazing, a 10-year-old has to demonstrate to a 40-something-year-old how to properly fold a bath towel in a godly manner! I of course was so intimidated by this woman I didn't even say, "Hey they fit on the shelves better the way I fold them!" I was intimidated by her #1 son that much. (admittedly I was somewhat wimpy, but would have gotten in trouble had I answered that brat! When they left the area, several of us sighed with relief. Little did we know that we would end up with the BL & wife as our TL's also. From being chastised with whips, we went to being chastised with scorpions! WG

Of course as far as health goes, this was 1994-95, when the doctrine had been established by LCM himself in the preface to a Sunday night teaching: "If you have a chronic disease in your life, it is because you have chronic sin in your life." I was quizzed by his sis-in-law later: "Do you understand what it is that you did that caused this to happen to you?" I nodded dumbly, thinking she meant did I understand the mechanisms of the disease (born wearing the wrong set of genes). Later an old friend told me my sin was that I did not believe that LCM was The Man of God For This Day and For This Time and For This Hour. For this, God smote me with a disease called insulin dependent diabetes! If God wanted to do something about my not believing in LCM, He would have probably rewarded me! WG

That was, by the way, the last time I ever babysat for her. For a while she was too mad to call me. Then when she did ask, I was mysteriously busy and couldn't come. WG

So what if she wasn't drugged?

What is legally right and what is morally right can be quite different. It is not legally wrong to seduce a young woman, plying her with alcohol, drugs, and flattery along with a hint of better things to come - "let me show you how to really love a man, honey". She succumbs, OM would say, of her own free will. But is it morally right? Of course not. wg

Re babysitting, mortgages etc. The incidents regarding which I was posting took place in Everett WA between 12/93 and 4/96. D*** M***er, the branch coordinator, starts teaching the "NO DEBT" policy. For sale signs quickly appear in yards. One very nice guy is no longer around. I asked Chris somebody, our TC, what happened. I am informed that this person refused to sell his house and was declared mark and avoid, because "he loves and worships his house more than he loves and worships the one true God." This was about 1995. A friend of D***'s and fellow WC announces he has figured out how to pay of his mortgage in two years. D*** allows him to keep it. Chris thingame tells me she and her husband have to either sell their house in two months or be declared M&A. Earlier, 1993-94 & early 1995 I am requested again and again, requested, not asked, to babysit for my TC's, V*** and K**** R****. My butt is on the line, because we've been dismissed from FWC 20 and I feel compelled to trot over there. Upon arrival I am confronted with a lengthy to do list. The meal has been consumed and I am privileged to wash, rinse, dry and put away the dishes. The shelves in the cabinets and refrigerator are all labelled so there's no chance of putting them away in the wrong place. The children do help. Then, each child in turn gets a bath. The two older bathe themselves, but the two younger must be bathed. Each child in turn brushes his/her teeth, and receives a glass of water just before bedtime. During this time period also, the kitchen floor must be swept and the living and dining rooms must be vacuumed. I was told I was permitted to remove a glass from the appropriate cabinet, remove the water jugjfrom the refrigerator, pour and consume a glass of water, refill and replace the jug, (be sure to note where the label "water jug" is on the shelf in the fridge). Nothing else is to be touched for my personal benefit. One night when my husband was working second shift my son and I went over to serve the WOG in this manner. It was colder than he11 in the house. After I had completed my assigned responsibilities for her majesty, I fell asleep on a love seat in her family room. Being weakened from my recent diagnosis of diabetes and exhausted by a day of work and my labors, I fell into what was actually a hypothermia-related deep sleep. The WOG came back, and could not rouse me. (Now in her position, I would most likely have called the squad). She finally shook me and yelled at me so hard I woke up somewhat. She was filled with exceeding great rage, and mighty and unspeakable fury. Her youngest had processed the glass of water she received just before going to bed and she had to change the sheets and WHAT IF ONE OF MY CHILDREN HAD NEEDED YOU? Now this all happened because I WAS NOT PERMITTED TO TOUCH THE THERMOSTAT OR THE STACK OF BLANKETS I KNEW WERE IN THE HALL CLOSET! A couple weeks later, after a doctor's appointment where I learned what had happened to me, I explained the situation to her, reminding her of her ironclad rule that nothing was to be touched except a water glass, etc. I was hoping to get her to see that I could easily have died due to her silly rules, had she stayed away an hour later (WC meeting with the Limb folks). All she said was" You were absolutely right not to touch the thermostat or the blankets. You know I don't permit anyone to do that." This women NEVER EVER ASKED me to babysit. She simply called up and said I need you to babysit tonight. Be here at such and such a time. Being on the line after the WC disaster, I felt I had to obey. Yeah, I had a choice, all right. Obey the great women of God or get kicked out of TWI and die! WG

Catcup, thanks, and if I ever go back there, I'm going to take a cudgel to that little egotiscal SOB. I wonder how he'd like to check his blood glucose 6 times a day, give himself shots 4-6 times a day, and wonder when his kidneys will give out or he'll go blind? I was visited in that hospital by about 12 so-called believers, many of whom I'd know for years and years, and do you know how many of them offered to pray with me or minister to me? Guess? 12? 10? 5? The answer is none, zip, zilch, zero! Whether one considers ministering to some one for healing authentic or not, when I first got involved in 1973, if you sneezed in twig, half the people there jumped on you and starting praying! By 1994, one was REPROVED for being sick. "Well!" the tc's perfect little wife would say to some hapless soul, "Where's YOUR believing?" But I digress..... don't want to go WG

I was very ill at ROA 1994. I hadn't felt well all summer, and now I was almost blind, had to get up several times each night to empty my bladder, was almost too weak to walk. I had attempted to find out about going to a doctor from our TC's wife, Ms. Perfect Health Through Organic Eating, who simply complimented me on my very successful weight loss program and cut off my question before I could ask it. (I went from 140 to 111 in 5 1/2 weeks). We stayed in one room of a two room tent with some friends from NC. The first night I had to get up to use the bathroom about 4 times. By Tuesday, I was staggering around, unable to eat, see or stand up, but drinking all the water I could find. Our TC suggested 3rd aid, where, to my surprise, they recommended a trip to the ER. So my husband walked me the mile or so to the car (no cars on grounds, no picking people up at the curb, and no people movers in sight.) At the hospital in St. Mary's the harassed ER doc drew a blood sample and sent it off to the lab STAT (that means right now!). He checked me over and told me he thought I had diabetes. My blood glucose came back 702 (normal is 70-120). I was in very bad shape. I spent the rest of ROA in the hospital, so I missed the great announcement about WOW being cancelled. My husbnad brought me the tape and I was just amazed. Then, when we finally get home to Washington, our wonderful TC comes over, not to thank God I'm alive and on medication, but to scream at me "You could have died in that tent, and that would have made the Ministry look bad!" Not a word about how was I feeling, had I found a doctor in Everett, nothing. The last ROA, 1995, we stayed with my husband's family and spent very little time at the ROA. By now, we had not only been dismissed from WFC 20 but also I had diabetes. Old friends gazed aside and didn't want anything to do with us. That was the part that really hurt. WG

Never have or do anything better than your leadership. When we lived in Washington State, we flew to Ohio for the ROA, due to time constraints with vacation, and becuase I'm diabetic and driving 24 hour days to gt there would have been very hard on me. We were confronted with, "And WHO are YOU that YOU should fly to the Rock of Ages when others, like ourselves, DROVE?" And also, being ordered up like a pepperoni pizza as unpaid babysitter/housecleaner at the whim of the leadershi*. Not only sit on the kids, but handwash, rinse and dry the dishes. Sweep and scrub the kitchen floor (done by this one woman on at least a daily basis). Run the vacuum. Bathe the children. Give each a glass of water right before bedtime, then get bytched out when the baby wets the bed. Such a privilege to serve such great men and women of God.

Mark, Do you really believe an underage child should die at his parents' discretion? Be it for socalled religious reasons or just a unique combination of ignorance and stupidity, that if mom and dad decide they don't want junior, who has been diagnosed with, say, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is curable in its early stages by using a combination of chemotherapy drugs, and mom and decide that (a) it's against their religion to use medicine, or (b) herbs and teas are cheaper than chemo treatments, or © they are too damn lazy to get up in the morning and take the kid to the hospital for treatment (yeah I've heard that one), they would rather take the huge risk, actually a certainty, for junior to suffer a long, slow, painful death, that that is their right and should be upheld? Sorry. That's just insane. I don't think a parent who loves a child more thanhim/herself would ever think like that. It's not the law, it's the stupid parents that need changed. Some parents love themselves much more than they love their own kids. Those people don't deserve to be parents. If I sound harsh, it's because pediatric oncologists deal with this kind of fuzzy thinking on occasion and it just is not right. I'm happy to call CPS for their county if they don't want to cooperate for whatever reason. The life of a child is more important and more valuable than sleeping until noon. I really don't give a rat's nose about the rights of the individual if that individual is hurting a child. If that child was being beaten to a pulp every day, or raped by daddy every day, would you feel the same way? Withholding of medical treatmetnt for a treatable condition is no different. WG

I think to say the parents have the right to decide life or death on this kid is legally declaring the child is nothing more than chattel property. And a 16-year-old doesn't know beans from barium about what to do. In fact, if it's a boy (sorry guys), he probably won't know beans from barium for another 10-20 years. WG

I was a foster parent to teenagers for several years. Had more than one of them tell us that they would be dead if not for us. We treated them as if they were our own. Trips to Disney World, driving lessons, the whole nine yards. Hodgkin's lymphoma is a bad way to go. Not that any cancer isn't. His parents should be educated about the dangers of treatment versus non-treatment (aka alternative treatments). Legally, if they decide they prefer alternative treatment or no treatment at all, or comfort measures only, that should be their right if they are adults. However, some parents simply go into a state of denial; this can't happen to MY kid, meaning this can't happen to ME. They dither and blather and in the meantime the child gets sicker and sicker. And dies.

Totally awesome! Go right ahead and spoil him! (Don't listen to anyone who says otherwise!)

I've worked in a cancer hospital for several years now. What ususually happens is this: The patient or in the case of a child, the patient's parents, decide that alternative treatments with herbs and teas and such is the way to go. Chemotherapy is nasty, you get anemic, weak, your mouth hurts and your hair falls out. Radiation can give you a sunburn like effect. So they dick around with this crap until the patient is nearly dead, come back to the hospital for chemo and radiation or whatever, but it's too late, and the patient dies, and who gets blamed? Why those big bad doctors, that's who! If we'd stuck to the quincy tea and turquoise cohosh, he'd still be alive and healthy today! What bull! That is exactly what's going to happen to this kid. If anyone of you has had cancer and been cured and remained cancer free from this herbal crap, I'd like to hear about it. So would the NCI.

Y'all should have a party with cake, champagne, (soda pop for the young'ns), streamers and confetti! F-R-E-E-D-O-M!

I think what bothered me the most was the comment (which became doctrine) that "God won't even spit in your direction unless you are giving 10%." First of all, who the he11 was LCM to dictate what God will and will not do? Second, it's not in the Bible. To say that a minimum of 10% is required to get God's attention sounds to me like a bribe. What if I don't have anything? God doesn't care about me? Of course, I never dared open my mouth when I was in. Wish I had've, I'd have been gone much sooner. WG

Belle, It wasn't like that when I was young, in the early 70's. The old Outreach Center, BRC, was there, VPW's home, and the barn and other ordinary farm outbuildings. You could pretty much wander at will. The woods were cool and nice, The area around the creek they called the River Jordan was nice. It really felt like some farm in the Ohio countryside. There were trailers out back for the WC to live in, stacked like sardines (WC, not the trailers). The only reproof I ever got ws when I cut across the lawn and Johnny T. politely asked me to use the sidewalk. But this didn't last long. More buildings, more rules, more paranoia that someone might meander into some area that was not supposed to be public knowledge. It wasn't much fun after that. And I was especially bothered my last few visits by the "safety" vehicles driving around and the very serious looking guards in front of the stockade gate to the chalet, as if they guarded the Holy of Holies. Too bad.

OM, Before you go on mindlessly defending required abundant sharing let me elucidate you. Fellow Laborers of Ohio was a training program. We were required to abundantly share. That's not the problem. I knew that when I signed up. The problem was a lack of trust on the part of donkeybutt, who did not believe me when I told him I was donating 15%. He had to have a check in his hands to prove to him that I was indeed giving ABS. And in fact, keeping track of ABS per person is wrong as far as I can tell. "Let not your right hand know what your left hand is doing." If TWI was suppposed to believe God for abundance, why did they have to require anyone to give anything? Huh?

A gentleman who was formerly on staff at TWI told me toward the end of their involvement which would've been mid to late 1990's, their TC in Minster, OH was requiring his underlings to bring their paycheck stubs to fellowship! Even earlier, in 1975 in Fellow Laborers, I got yapped at for ABS'ing in cash, because the smartdonkey branch coordinator could not keep track of how much I gave if it was in cash. (never occurred to him that if I was the only one who gave cash, it would be easy to figure out where it came from, I guess). I was required to write a check so he could be sure I was giving enough. I was too intimidated to say anything. WG

I think there was a Way Rag article by LCM about the tithe when we were, lessee now, would've been early 90's. I think that was where he coined the immortal phrase "God won't spit in your direction for less than 10%." I remember a young couple in the same twig we attended wanting to give but being unable to donate 10% and I told them "give what you can with a cheerful heart and you will still be blessed." That was when the guy told me the TC, a little legalistic banty rooster of a jerk, had told him not to dare give anything less than 10% or it would displease God. (I think his god must have been from Oklahoma). I told them I strongly disagreed with that, I didn't care what LCM said. Banty never liked me much after that..... WG

Aw, Tom, That was one year in my life I'm really thankful for, mostly due to nice folks like y'all. I like to think we done some good out there in Texas! WG

Was that the same one where he said a person who comes to a fellowship should be so excited, so blessed that that first time that soul would want to give 10%, then after that keep increasing on a regular basis, until while taking the class for the first time (PFAL) would naturally give 15% or so? He went on and on at a great rate. I think the squeeze was on, with WC being full time and so on. Our BL and his little wife were always talking about eating out at some Mexican restaurant or other, but that night they snivelled and whined about what would they do, what would they do, if their salaries were cut because we underlings were not believing big enough to give a truckload of money to TWI. The little wife sniffed, "I don't have to have nice things to put in my hair. I don't have to have nice things to put on my face." I can live without those things and we can eat Raman noodles all the time." I thought about my early years of marriage, (not to mention the WOW field), when I bought toiletries at the drugstore and thought nothing of it. I always had enough. Not because of the dollars and cents I donated to TWI, but because God loves me - and I'm a smart shopper! That said, we do give to our little church, because we love God and we love our little church, and because we want to. The day we're told we have to, we'll say, "Hasta La Vista!" And of course, nasty person that I am, when they were whining about Raman noodles and so on, I thought, "Gee," I thought all you wonderful men and women of God who were WC grads were volunteers!" WG

ILB, It goes away slowly and irregularly, I think. My husband is from a town in NW Ohio, so we go there to visit occasionally. I used to get massively depressed by the time we got to St. Mary's. I used to have panic attacks when we passed a sign for Hwy 29. I was even afraid that someone from HQ would see us and confront us. See a part of me believed the lies that we were evil, unworthy of fellowshipping with heaven's holiest, that the spirit within me died on April 16, 1996 at 9:04 PM Pacific Standard Time. And I missed the people I loved in that organization. I was very, very insecure. But now I have a new best friend. His Name is Jesus and He died for me. I'm sure He wonders how on earth I could have believed the nonsense those people taught about Him, but He loves me anyway. And I haven't had anyone who said they represented Him raise a voice to me since, well, April 16, 1996 at 9:04 PM PST. Sometimes I still feel a sense of loss. But like Job, I'm receiving 10 fold what I lost in every category of my life. You will, too, dear. It just takes time. WG